Blossom Hotel Project Transforms, Expands Reaches Build Phase

by Adolfo Pesquera

Houston (Harris County) – Almost two years have passed since a Houston company proposed a nine-story hotel to be built near the Texas Medical Center. Since then, the project has morphed and grown and finally reached the construction phase.

Zhejiang Blossom Tourism Group Houston LLC chose a location centrally located to serve the many surrounding hospitals and clinics. It was originally envisioned as a budget hotel with an adjacent six-level parking structure. The working title in 2015 was Blossom Hotel and Suite, but the name has since changed to Blossom Hotel Medical Center, 7118 Bertner Ave.

According to state records, the project originally had an estimated cost of $30.7 million. The price tag has gone up and so has everything else.

Zhejiang Blossom Tourism Group Houston LLC is not known for land development, and has not released an explanation for the design changes. It may be that news of the Texas Medical Center’s intention to invest $1.5 billion into a new campus that is directly across Bertner Avenue from their property inspired the developer to re-think and upgrade.

In any case, the architectural documents are complete and subcontractors have until May 15 to submit bids on a project that will be going to construction sometime this summer. The project is expected to take 18 months to complete.

At a recalculated cost of about $94.7 million, this is now a 16-story hotel that faces Bertner Avenue. It will have an adjacent eight-level parking garage along LeHall Street with capacity for 269 vehicles. Access into and out of the parking garage will be from Bertner Avenue and Saint Agnes Street.

The hotel is positioned toward the southeast corner of the property at Bertner and St. Agnes, and will include meeting rooms, private dining and other amenities. There will be 265 guest rooms. The hotel’s area is 400,000 square feet, according to the construction documents.

Dimensional site plan: Traffic would enter from St. Agnes Street and Bertner Avenue, and exit from Bertner.

There are plans for a retail shop at the northeast corner (Bertner and LeeHall). But that is to be permitted separately.

The Blossom Hotel Medical Center will be a concrete frame structure with a total height of 203 feet (tower included). The rooftop reaches 188 feet, and the parking garage rises to about 80 feet.

Adolfo Pesquera (Reporter/Editor) is a veteran news journalist. He has worked for Hearst Corp., American Lawyer Media, News Corp and Freedom Communications. His work has been published in newspapers and magazines across the USA. He is a journalism graduate of UT-RGV. He writes, edits and creates digital pages for VBX.